Monday, December 17, 2018

Debunk A Law School Myth

I was 100 percent convinced I would have zero friends in law school.

This was not because I love being home by 10 pm, or because most of the time I will opt for takeout and 90’s films.

I thought I would be completely on my own because every person I talked to that had attended law school told me that law school WASN’T a place to make friends. Their logic was premised on 1.) everyone in law school secretly hates each other and everyone is just fighting to be at the top of their class and 2.) I was from out of state and didn’t have any undergrad or pre-law school friends in the area.

Of course, I pondered this insightful advice that was being given to me (most of the time without me asking for it). I frequently found myself construing cost-benefit analysis’ in my head. They went something like this: “law school is expensive, but hey I’ll get a good job! But what if I go insane? You know because I have no friends. Also what if I hate my job? Well maybe I’ll still make decent money, but back to the being completely isolated thing, not sure I can do that…”

It went on and on like this, until I just rolled my eyes at the last middle-aged man who told me “to rethink the law school idea”, and said “thank you, but I’m going.”

Maybe Loyola is different than other law schools, or maybe everyone was lying to me, but I most definitely have friends here. During orientation, a professor told me that her three best friends to this day were the people that she sat next to during her 1L year.

No one has lied to me or tried to trip me up on an assignment. My experience thus far has been highly collaborative. For the most part everyone is willing to help everyone, students and teachers alike.

It is true that we are all technically competing to be at the top of our class, but I learned quickly that law school is a marathon and a little social interaction goes a long way. Plenty of people will tell you not to go to law school, sometimes you just need to roll your eyes.